


The Infiltration of the Art Room

by Kimurni



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: (Meaning that I might continue this someday), Ambiguous/Open Ending, Gen, Lila Rossi Lies, Lila Rossi's Lies Are Exposed, Minor Juleka Couffaine/Rose Lavillant, Minor Marc Anciel/Nathaniel Kurtzberg, POV Marc Anciel, Some Lila Rossi POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:42:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23179426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kimurni/pseuds/Kimurni
Summary: Sitting next to Nathaniel wasn’t particularly exciting. He spent more time face-first on the desk than paying attention to class, much less Lila.  As such, she didn’t take much more interest in him than she did the rest of the class.That is, until she met his boyfriend, and heard the sort of things he was saying about her after class.The solution was an obvious one, with the bonus of driving another stake between Marinette and her friends.Lila was going to join the art room.
Relationships: Marc Anciel & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 76
Kudos: 487





	1. Chapter 1

At the sound of the bell Lila began packing her things, playfully nudging the boy besides her.

“It’s over, Nate. You can come out now.”

Nathaniel groaned. He had been lying on the desk for the past half-hour. She wasn’t even sure he had been awake.

She laughed as he sat up, looking dejectedly at the board. Pretending she was listening as he muttered about how impossible this was, Lila looked to Marinette, pleased to see her frustration.

When he’d finished, she groaned and said, “I know, right?”

Nathaniel didn’t seem confused, which meant he hadn’t noticed she wasn’t paying attention. Instead he was getting up to leave.

She moved quickly to walk besides him, saying, “You know, I’m pretty good in this class. Maybe I could tutor you!”

They walked right past Marinette just as Lila asked, “What are you doing after school?”

“Actually, Marc and I are working on a comic book,” Nathaniel explained. Now it was Marinette’s turn to look smug.

“That’s, so cool!” Lila quickly switched gears, happy Marinette was hearing all of it. “You guys are so talented.”

“I’ve got a great partner.” Nathaniel smiled at the thought, before falling back to talk to Alix.

She let him go, shifting her focus to getting to the locker room in time to “accidentally” reveal the new bag she had in her locker to the others.

Instead, she was soon distracted by someone else she saw walking in the opposite direction.

Lila recognized the boy as Nathaniel’s boyfriend immediately. Keeping track of these things were important when you were trying to win over the school. It was crucial that she knew who everyone was, so she could behave accordingly.

She changed course to cross paths with him, approaching him with mock surprise.

“Oh my gosh, you’re Marc, aren’t you?” She cried, ignoring his startled expression at being noticed. She flashed her brightest smile, “I’m Lila. I sit next to Nathaniel in class. I’ve heard so much about you!”

“Oh, uh, hi Lila,” Marc said tentatively, his own smile awkward. “I’ve heard a lot about you too.”

Something about the way he said it didn’t sit right with her, but she pressed on, “I’ve read you and Nathaniel’s comic books. They’re amazing! It must be hard keeping all those storylines straight.”

“Well I’ve got a great partner.” Marc looked flattered, but there was still something off about him.

“I’m a bit of a writer myself, we should totally talk plots sometime!” 

“That could be fun.” He seemed genuine, but still not sold as he fidgeted with his notebook and said, “But we should probably get to class right now.”

This time Lila frowned, painting hurt across her face with practiced ease.

“I’m sorry, am I making you uncomfortable?” She took a step away from him that would make anyone who had seen her uncaring of Adrien’s personal space laugh.

“Oh, no, sorry!” He stammered his reply just as she’d hoped, feeling bad for upsetting her. He gathered himself and looked away, saying, “I just didn’t really know what to expect when I met you. But you seem really nice!”

He added the clarification quickly, suddenly looking up in panic. Lila’s frown deepened.

“Is something wrong?” She asked, moving closer to him again.

Marc looked away, “It’s just with all the stories going around, it’s hard to know what’s real.”

Lila didn’t like the sound of this.

“What stories?” She asked, adding a distinct note of fear to her voice, “Have people been talking about me behind my back?”

“No! Well, sort of…” Marc sighed. “Mostly about when Marinette got expelled.”

Of course it was Marinette spreading the rumors.

She winced and dropped her gaze to her shoes, “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that word got around, huh? After everything that happened…”

She had been hoping to garner sympathy. After all, she had made it a point not to give the “lying disease” explanation to the rest of the school. Instead, Marc was fidgeting with his notebook uncomfortably again.

He didn’t seem to know what to say, so she prompted him, “What sort of things have you heard? I’d be happy to try to clear it up.”

“Well,” He said slowly, apparently measuring what he said, “I know that there were rumors that she pushed you down the stairs, I know that she accused you of framing her for cheating on a test, and I know your necklace was in her locker…”

Lila was careful to look upset as he spoke, like the memories were painful, but Marc didn’t react too noticeably. He didn’t sound entirely sure of what he was saying.

“I wish I could say it wasn’t true,” She said sadly. “I don’t know why she hates me so much. But I promise I didn’t steal the test answers!”

“I believe you.” He said it a little too quickly for her to be sure he meant it. A moment later he added, “It’s just that I’ve known Marinette for years, and she says she didn’t do any of that stuff. It’s not like her.”

“I was surprised too,” Lila said, shaking her head, “it didn’t seem like her at all. But Nathaniel must have told you what happened, right?”

Marc looked dubious, “Actually, it was all we were talking about in the art room for a while. None of them think she would cheat, none of them think she would push someone down the stairs, but everyone saw the necklace in her locker. Rose and Juleka were really freaked out by it, Alix was mad, and Nate was just confused. No one really knows what happened.”

Working quick, Lila pushed herself to the verge of tears, half turning away from him, “I can’t believe they don’t believe me. Everybody saw that she stole my necklace.”

“It’s not that we don’t believe you!” Marc said, throwing up his hands defensively. “It’s that we don’t know what’s true! I mean, everyone saw that part. They all do believe you, mostly. But I don’t think Marinette would do that stuff on purpose.”

“It’s okay, I get it,” Lila whispered, turning her back to him completely, “You’ve known her a long time, and you weren’t there.” She waited until she had gotten herself properly crying to glance back at him, “I hope we can still be friends.”

Without waiting for his reply, she ran off.

She stopped when she was sure she was out of sight, and glared over her shoulder in his direction.

Lila had never been confronted with how people talked about her behind her back before, and she didn’t like what she was hearing. Her reputation had to be perfect, and even if people mostly believed her, clearly not everyone did. The fact that this was a group of people Marinette cared about only made it more important.

She had promised her she’d lose all her friends, and by god she was going to make it happen. Her next step would have to be Marinette’s one remaining sanctuary at school.

She was going to take over room 33.


	2. Chapter 2

Marc groaned as he scribbled out another sentence in his notebook. It was now his fifth attempt to get a conversation between the heroes and the akumatized villain they had invented to sound natural, and he was starting to wonder if the problem was buried somewhere earlier in his writing.

He was just flipping back to reread the scenes leading up to the one in question, when the door flew open, and Lila strut into the room.

“Hi everyone!” She called, waving to the group. They echoed her with cheerful replies, except for Marinette. Marc glanced her way to see her glaring at her suspiciously.

“Welcome to Room 33.” The art teacher was upon her in a heartbeat, introducing himself.

Marc’s attention was pulled from them by Marinette, who he could hear muttering angrily from the next table over, “What is she doing here?”

Marc considered replying, but Lila had finished talking to the teacher and began wandering the room, drawing everyone’s attention with ease. 

“Wow! Your traditional art is so good, Nathaniel!”

Out of nowhere Lila was at their table, leaning over Nate’s shoulder to look in his notebook.

“I draw all the comics traditional,” Nathaniel explained. “I just scan them and color them on my tablet.”

Lila went on praising Nathaniel’s art, and for a moment Marc was scared she was going to try to read his writing, when Marinette intervened.

“What are you even doing here, Lila?” She was standing defensively in front of the piece she had been sewing, as if she inspected her to steal it.

“I thought this is where everyone in school went to express themselves,” Lila said, holding up her phone. “I was hoping there was a spot open for me.”

“You’re always welcome to work on projects here outside of class times,” The teacher informed her.

Marinette was clearly on edge, turning back to Lila, “So what’s your project then?”

Lila smiled brightly, “I’m a photographer! Well, I also model a little, and write, but I came here to work on photography.”

By now the two had the whole room looking at them, as Rose interjected brightly, “Juleka, don’t you want to be a model?”

Juleka looked like all she wanted right now was to disappear, flushing bright red as she muttered a reply. Marc felt for her, hoping someone would draw the attention from her embarrassment.

Instead, Lila looked thrilled, “Oh my gosh, really? I’ve been looking for a new subject, since Adrien’s always so busy! You should totally model for me!”

Juleka only appeared to be getting more flustered, retreating a step or two behind Rose before nodding awkwardly. Rose squealed in excitement, whirling around to hug her girlfriend.

“This is going to be so much fun! You’re going to do amazing, Juleka!”

With them distracted, Lila turned to the others, now landing on Alix, who was still holding the spray can for the piece she’d been working on a moment ago.

“You do graffiti?” She asked, walking over with interest.

Alix shrugged, “We call it ‘street art’, since I don’t vandalize anything but my room.”

“It looks amazing!” Lila said, admiring the wall. “But what are you going to do when you finish?”

“Paint over it,” Alix said, tossing the can from one hand to another.

“Wow, it’s so impermanent. I guess that adds to the beauty of it though, huh?”

Alix was snickering at Lila’s art critic-like commentary as Marc turned to see how Marinette was doing.

Marinette looked absolutely mutinous, fists clenched at her side. Then a thought seemed to dawn on her, and she relaxed a little.

Lila was still talking as Marinette looked to her.

“Do you mind if I take pictures of it when you’re finished? We could start an album online of everything you’ve done to the wall!”

“Hey, Lila, don’t you need a camera to work on photography?” Marinette interjected.

Marc noticed a certain level of exasperation from the group as they turned back to her, but Lila laughed.

“My phone has a camera in it, silly!” She shook it teasingly in her direction, opening the camera and snapping a picture of her for good measure. “Some of them have really good ones, too!”

She turned the phone around to show the group Marinette’s look of frustration as she went on, “and besides, there’s lots of things you can do without one, like editing. There’s so much you can do in post!”

Whatever Marinette’s plan was, it had completely backfired. The group was now inundating Lila with questions about photography and photo editing, and she was answering them all with ease.

Marc looked over at her, considering saying something, when he saw Marinette mutter something to her bag, take a very forced deep breath, then gather her project and head for the door. He watched her go, decided that it might be best to give her some space, and wandered over to join the others looking at scenic pictures from Lila’s trip to the Kingdom of Achu.


	3. Chapter 3

Evidentially, Lila genuinely had wanted to spend time in the art room practicing her photography.

Every day she was right alongside them, complimenting everyone’s art as she worked on her own.

At first Marc had wondered if Marinette would stop coming, but she refused to stop, no matter how angry she seemed to be listening to Lila with the others, or how many times she pricked herself because she was paying more attention to Lila than her own work.

One of these times came around again as Lila was taking pictures of Alix’s latest mural. Marc noticed Marinette sucking her finger out of the corner of his eye, as Lila tried to coax Alix into posing with her work.

“Damn, those turned out pretty nice.” Alix nodded her approval as Lila flicked through the pictures they had taken.

“Thank you so much, Alix!” Lila said, a little too loudly. She paused, looking down at her phone, “Oops! Too far! These are a few test shots Juleka and I took on the grounds the other day. Isn’t she a natural? Have you modeled before, Juleka?”

Marc looked up just in time to catch Juleka go from quietly flattered, to somewhat panicked. She shrugged and muttered a bit before Rose piped up.

“Juleka modeled with Adrien once! They were taking pictures for Marinette’s fashion line!”

For a moment Marc thought he saw Lila’s expression flicker, but he couldn’t be sure. He was, however, positive that he saw a smug grin spread across Marinette’s face as she continued pinning.

If it had gotten to her, Lila recovered quickly, saying, “That is so cool! I didn’t know you had your own line, Marinette!”

“I have a website,” Marinette said, turning to her casually. “Juleka and Adrien did all the pictures. They were the best models anyone could ask for.”

“No doubt!” Lila nodded. Then she lit up, clapping her hands together, “I know! You should totally let me shoot your next line! I’d do it for free, of course, and I could edit the pictures for your website-“

“Absolutely not!” Marinette snapped, standing up so quickly she knocked her stool to the floor.

Anyone who wasn’t watching before had looked up at her outburst, just in time to catch Marinette apparently furious that Lila was offering to help her, and to see Lila look like she was about to cry.

“Oh, okay…” Lila said quietly, looking down at her feet. Rose was at her side in a moment, Juleka trailing after her.

“Don’t worry Lila, you’ll get to take pictures of Marinette’s designs when we do the photoshoot for Kitty Section,” Rose reassured her.

“WHAT?!” Marinette screamed, getting the attention on her again.

Juleka suddenly looked fearful as Lila explained, voice shaking, “We had been talking about it after school the other day. Their music is so good, and we thought it would be fun. Plus then I’d have something to show the talent producers the next time I see them.”

Marinette looked like she might scream again as Rose hugged Lila, who had begun to cry. Several people were giving Marinette dirty looks. Marc turned to Nathaniel, and saw that he mostly looked tired and sad. Alix looked frustrated.

After a little while of not much happening, Lila, Rose, and Juleka left, apparently off to meet up with the other band members on the boat. With the room steadily clearing out, Marc got up and went to sit beside Marinette, who was now aggressively seam ripping her garment.

“Hey, what’s going on with you and Lila?” He asked, hoping desperately not to upset her.

Apparently, that was impossible. Marinette slammed the seam ripper onto the table in frustration, saying, “She’s such a liar!”

“What do you mean?” Marc asked. “She really is doing photography.”

“She doesn’t care about photography, unless it makes her look good!” Marinette exclaimed, throwing the fabric onto the table too. “She’s just trying to get everyone to like her.”

Marc was afraid to push anymore. Luckily, (or unluckily, depending on your perspective), Alix was still there.

“She’s not even done anything to you,” She said, wandering over to the table, her dripping spray can dangerously near to the fabric.

Marinette didn’t seem to notice, instead addressing her comment, “She only came here because I’m here! She’s been in school so long, why haven’t any of us heard about her photography before now?”

“You’ve been here the whole time, why has she just come now?” Alix countered.

By now Nathaniel had noticed what was happening, joining the group.

“Why are you so sure she hates you?” He asked, stopping between Marc and Alix. “The thing with the test?”

“But then why automatically assume it was Lila then too?” Alix asked. She turned to Marinette, crossing her arms, “Look, we all like you, Marinette, but so far we’ve got nothing from your side. All we’ve ever seen is Lila trying to be nice and you yelling at her. Why do you hate her so much?”

Marinette bit her lip and looked away. Nathaniel and Alix exchanged a look.

“So this goes back further than the thing with the tests?” Marc asked tentatively.

“Really since Lila came back to school,” Nathaniel said. “There was a whole mess with the seating charts, and the rest of the day was just…”

“Marinette trying to prove that Lila was making up everything she’d ever said to us?” Alix suggested, rolling her eyes.

“Pretty much.” Nathaniel shrugged.

“She was lying!” Marinette objected.

“Why do you think so?” Alix asked, getting more and more openly frustrated. “Literally, why? Because as much as it’s not like you to do all the stuff like cheating and shoving her down the stairs, it’s also not like you to hate someone for no reason. We all know why you hate Chloe, so why do you hate Lila? Do you have any proof that anything she’s said is a lie?”

“I keep trying to find proof-!”

“-And it keeps being wrong,” Alix cut in. “Seriously, what did she do to make you hate her so much?”

“She’s a liar!” Marinette repeated. Alix rolled her eyes.

Nathaniel sighed, stepping forwards, “Marinette, we really, really want to believe you. Alix and I have talked about it a lot, and we desperately want to believe you. But she’s right, so far all we’ve seen is you calling her a liar. And it’s not like you to try to do this for no reason. All we want to know is why.”

Apparently, whatever the reason that first jumped to mind, Marinette didn’t want to tell them. She looked from one of them to another, almost desperately.

“I promise she is,” She said unsteadily, “I just… can’t tell you why I know. But she is! She hates me, I’m just trying to defend myself!”

Marc thought he caught Alix muttering something about a bracelet, but Nathaniel seemed distracted, finally saying, “This has been going on since the first day she was here, hasn’t it? Because you kept trying to prove she was lying about being in Achu when we were talking to her on Heroes Day.”

Marinette nodded. For the first time in a while, Marc decided to speak up.

“Can you tell us why you can’t tell us?”

Marinette paused in what was clearly a moment of thinking through what would happen if she told them, before quickly stammering, “No, no! Can’t you just trust me?”

Her voice was growing smaller the longer she spoke. Marc noticed Alix and Nathaniel looking at one another again, silently communicating.

“Can you at least tell us why her necklace was in your locker?” Alix challenged. “Unless it was yours, and you didn’t say anything.”

“She must have snuck it into my locker earlier in the day,” Marinette said quickly. “I swear, I would never steal her necklace! I promise!”

“We don’t think you’re a thief, Marinette,” Nathaniel reassured her. “There’s just a lot of questions nobody seems able to answer.”

Marinette seemed at a loss for words, and Marc no longer knew what to think.

On the one hand, Lila had been nothing but nice so far, and Marinette refused to tell them what her actual problem with her was, other than saying over and over that she was a liar. (Which, apparently, she’d never been able to prove.)

But on the other hand nothing Lila had accused her of sounded like something Marinette would do. And they were right, Marinette wasn’t the type to hate someone without a reason. So far the group had avoided the obvious “she’s also crushing on Adrien” motivation, in the hopes that Marinette would provide them with a better one. But Marinette had never gone this far with someone else who liked Adrien before, and she seemed genuinely upset about this.

After a tense silence, Alix went to grab her bag, telling them that her brother had cryptically told her to meet her in the park, and she had to go see what his latest conspiracy theory was.

This left the boys and Marinette, Nathaniel turning back to her.

“We’re happy to listen if you ever want to talk,” He said gently. “We really don’t think you did all that stuff.”

“Thanks, Nate,” Marinette said, standing up herself. “I should be heading home too. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

They watched her retreat from the room, and when she was gone Marc turned to Nathaniel.

“What do you really think happened?”

Nathaniel took a deep breath, still staring at the door, and said, “I want to think this is all some big misunderstanding. Something’s obviously going on, though. What’s weird is that Lila says she doesn’t know why Marinette’s mad at her, and Marinette won’t tell anyone what’s going on.”

They spent another minute dwelling on it, before each decided to pack their own things and head for home.

But even with all the evidence stacked against her, all that stuck with Marc was how genuinely upset Marinette had been.


	4. Chapter 4

“-And then when he turns back, no one will be able to tell he had been there in the first place.”

“That’s genius, Lila!”

Marc jotted down her solution in his notebook, with her blessings to use or modify it as they saw fit. If he had to give her something, she could really write herself out of a plot hole while making it seem like that was the plan all along.

This time around Lila had set up camp at the boys table, and they’d finally gotten around to talking stories. If nothing else, she wasn’t making this up. She really could write, or at least come up with plotlines.

Marinette had been incredibly quiet about Lila’s bragging about her trips, standing huddled on her phone, only occasionally looking over to Nathaniel, who was currently trying to draw something based off one of her pictures.

At last, Marinette called a triumphant, “ah-ha!”

By this point only those who knew her better bothered to see what she was excited about, as she strode over to Nathaniel and placed her phone besides Lila’s.

“Look familiar?”

Sure enough, she had found a picture identical to the one Nathaniel was drawing from on Instagram.

The group looked to Lila expectantly, and were a little surprised to see her looking tired.

“Really? Not again…”

She wandered over to look at it, checking the account, then shook her head.

She smiled dejectedly at Nathaniel, “Uncredited repost.”

He winced on her behalf, “What is up with people?”

“I know! It’s like none of them care about stealing someone else’s work!”

Marc looked over to Marinette, to find her biting her phone to avoid screaming.

In that moment he made a snap judgment, pulling out his own phone and looking something up quickly. Satisfied with what he saw, he sent Alix a text, and turned to Lila.

“Hey, Lila, if you’re not busy, and if you don’t mind people reading your writing, I just thought of a game we could play.”

Lila lit up, having his attention immediately, “That sounds like fun! What kind of game?”

“I was thinking we could pick a prompt and then both write about it and see how different they turn out.”

He was trying to sound more confident than he was, and apparently succeeding, because Lila seemed thrilled.

“That sounds like so much fun!”

Marc looked around, feigning decision, then called out, “Hey, Alix! Could you give us a writing prompt?”

“Sure,” Alix acted thoughtful, then said, “All the superheroes owning and running restaurants named after them. The Bug Bakery, the Cat Café, the Rena Restaurant…”

“Oooh, I like it!” Lila cooed. She held her hand out to Marc. “You’re on. When’s the deadline?”

He shook her hand and said, “I don’t know. Barely edited drabble by tomorrow? Are you free?”

“I can do that.”

At this Lila turned back to chatting with Nathaniel, and Marc went back to writing, turning his attention to the competition’s story.

Nothing much else happened, and soon the art room was clearing out again, until only Marc, Nathaniel, Alix, and Marinette were left.

As soon as she saw this, Alix approached him, arms crossed, but looking amused.

“What’re you up to?”

The others looked up curiously, and Marc shrugged.

“I just figured out for sure how to tell if Lila’s a liar.”

That drew Marinette’s complete attention, and soon he was surrounded by the three.

“Wait, catch me up, what’s happening?” Nathaniel looked from Alix to Marc.

Alix held up her phone, “He texted me ‘superheroes having restaurants, Bug Bakery, Cat Café, Rena Restaurant, don’t ask’.”

Nathaniel looked at his boyfriend, bemused, “What did you do?”

“Well, you guys know I barely posted my stuff online, so pretty much no one reads it,” Marc explained slowly, “and one of the things I’ve posted was a short thing about that AU. I just looked it up, and I’m the only one who’s written about it. Lila doesn’t know my account, so if she really is lying about everything she’ll probably just take my story and say she wrote it. If she does, she’s a liar, if she doesn’t, she’s telling the truth.”

“Nice one,” Alix smirked, punching him affectionately on the arm.

“That’s why he’s the writer.” Nathaniel nodded approvingly.

“Marc, this is amazing!” Marinette cried, absolutely beside herself with joy. She looked to the others expectantly, “And when she turns in Marc’s writing, then you’ll believe me?”

“I’m really hoping she doesn’t turn in my writing,” Marc said, before the two could properly answer.

“But if she does, then we’re on your side, one hundred percent,” Alix said. Nathaniel nodded.

All that was left to do was wait.


	5. Chapter 5

There was an air of nervous excitement in the art room the next day, Marc clutching his notebook close to his chest, wishing time would just move faster.

He had gone ahead and written another story about his stupid restaurant AU, in case Lila was being honest. He had thought that turning in what he’d already posted would both expose that she was being set up if she came across it later, and wouldn’t be in the spirit of the competition he’d challenged her to.

He wanted it to be an honest game, and that meant his part had to be honest too.

At last Lila came into the room, still chatting with Rose and Juleka about modeling techniques, before going over to the boys table. She didn’t notice as Alix grabbed the girls behind her back, and led the pair over to Marinette, who was deliberately hovering near enough to the art table to hear what was happening.

“Hey, Marc!” Lila called, “I’ve got my story!”

She reached into her bag and pulled out a notebook of her own, and Marc’s spirits lifted, though he felt a little bad as Marinette looked crestfallen.

What were the odds Lila would bother to rewrite the whole thing out in a notebook?

“I’ve got mine too,” Marc said, flipping open his book to the correct page. He didn’t like letting other people hold his notebook, but for the moment he would make an exception.

They swapped books, and Marc began to read. 

His heart immediately sank as he recognized his words written in her handwriting.

Disappointment turned to anger, mainly on Marinette’s behalf, as Nathaniel began to read over his shoulder, frowning.

Lila giggled at something, “Wow, I love how you play Cat Noir!”

“Lila, this isn’t your writing.”

He hadn’t meant to sound so harsh, but he certainly got the attention of everyone, including Rose and Juleka, who had gone dead quiet, staring at them. Alix already looked furious besides them.

“What do you mean?” Lila asked innocently. “Of course it is. I wrote it last night.”

“No, I’ve read this before,” Marc said shakily. He nearly said it was his writing, but thought better of it, instead pulling out his phone and pulling up the story in his private browser.

He handed it over to her, and she looked at it in confusion, then laughed.

“Marc, that’s my account!” She handed it back to him, shaking her head, “I guess I never told you I had one. But you should totally tell me yours! I’d love to read more of your-“

“-Lila this is my account.”

You could hear a pin drop as Lila’s smile fell.

“Why are you lying about this, Marc?” She asked, right back to sounding heartbroken.

Marc didn’t reply, instead going onto his main browser, and turning his phone around to reveal that it was, in fact, logged into the account in question.

Rose gasped, clinging to Juleka’s arm. Nathaniel shook his head. Alix looked like she was about to punch someone. Marinette looked thrilled, barely restraining herself from interjecting.

Lila didn’t miss a beat, shouting, “You hacked my account?!”

“What? No!” Marc stumbled, caught off guard by her sudden fury, and the attention from the members of the room who hadn’t been looking before.

“Well obviously you did, its right there on your phone!”

“Why don’t you show us the account on your phone, Lila?” Marinette suggested, clearly struggling to sound innocent.

“I was wondering why it kicked me out this morning!” Lila said, ignoring her to turn on Marc. “You must have changed my password! Why would you do that, Marc? It’s so not like you!”

“What’s going on here, kids?”

The art teacher had finally returned to the room, and was looking on in concern.

Lila once again looked like she was about to cry, “Marc hacked-“

“Oh, shut up, Lila,” Alix interjected, earning her a glare from the girl. “We know that’s Marc’s account.”

“I was there when he made it,” Nathaniel added, glaring at her himself.

Lila sputtered indignantly, turning from one to another. Finally, she burst into tears.

The art teacher and everyone else who hadn’t been listening from the start seemed thoroughly confused now, as Lila turned beseechingly to Rose and Juleka.

“You two believe me, don’t you?” She asked quietly.

Rose and Juleka looked at each other, then Rose said, “Stealing people’s art isn’t okay, Lila.”

“But he stole it from me!” Lila cried. “Marc’s not even in our class. Do we really know him well enough to know he wouldn’t? I mean, it seems so unlike him, but-“

“-You vanished for months,” Alix cut her off again, “Marc started coming while you were gone. We’ve known him longer than we’ve known you.”

Marc was incredibly grateful for Alix’s intervention, having grown fearful as Lila made a scene, attempting to pin things on him. It felt awful, even when everyone was defending him.

All this really made him feel terrible for Marinette. Even with Alya and the others on her side, she had still been expelled.

“But why would I lie to you guys?” Lila was asking the group at large.

“Why would Marc lie to us?” Marinette retorted.

“You know, maybe if you’d just admitted it, we’d believe this was all you’ve done,” Nathaniel said carefully. “But now you’re just saying Marc stole your account. How are we supposed to believe anything you tell us, Lila?”

Lila looked around desperately, growing more upset as she noticed Marinette smirking at her.

Finally, she turned back to the members of Kitty Section, “The boys will believe me!”

“Luka was akumatized because XY stole Marinette’s designs.”

It was the first thing Juleka had said so far, and it made an impact. 

Lila cried harder, shouting, “I didn’t steal anything! Why won’t anybody believe me?”

The art teacher carefully put a hand on her shoulder, and she turned around and threw herself against him, crying louder.

“Can I see the writing everyone’s talking about?” He asked gently.

Marc and Lila each retrieved their notebooks and handed them to him, and he went straight to Lila’s looking over the story in question.

He sighed, shaking his head.

“Lila, Marc showed me this when he wrote it two months ago.”

Lila leapt away from him as if he’d burned her, desperately looking for something to say.

“Well, I hadn’t wanted to say it, but I’d written and posted it a long time ago, and I had so much homework that when I realized I already had something that fit the prompt-“

“-He posted it two months ago too,” Alix said nonchalantly, reading over Nathaniel’s shoulder, where he had pulled up the story on his phone.

“You mean I posted it two months ago,” Lila corrected, sniffling a little, “He must have read it and then copied it down. I just don’t understand why.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Alix said, looking at her dangerously.

The art teacher stepped in, positioning himself between the girls as he said, “Lila, Room 33 is all about creativity. You’re welcome here if you want to work on a project, like that photography you’re so good at, but art theft is not okay.”

“But I didn’t steal anything!” Lila insisted. It was a testament to the quality of her makeup that she hadn’t cried it all off by now.

“I don’t understand. Why would you take Marc’s writing?” Rose asked. She sounded heartbroken.

“I DIDN’T!” Lila screamed.

She spent another moment looking from one person to another, waiting for some sort of support, and when it didn’t come she snatched her notebook back and stuffed it into her bag.

“Well if everyone’s going to listen to the thief instead of me, I guess I’ll just go!”

At this she ran from the room, leaving a muttering mass in her wake.

As the excitement wore down, and people began to tire of questioning the audacity of her stealing Marc’s work then so blatantly lying about it, Marc spoke up.

“So I guess we know for sure she set Marinette up now.”

The realization hit the group of classmates hard, and in an instant Rose was on Marinette, hugging her.

“I’m sorry I ever even doubted you a teensy bit!”

Juleka nodded.

“Looks like you were right, you got your proof,” Alix agreed, coming over to ruffle her hair.

“She really does just hate you,” Nathaniel observed.

Marinette was positively besides herself, looking from one to the other, “I’m just glad you all finally see what a liar she is.”

Alix glanced over her shoulder towards the door.

“The next question is will the others believe us.”

Marinette was only half paying attention as the conversation turned to one of how to break it to the others that Lila really was a liar.

Instead she turned to Marc, who smiled shyly at her, and hugged him.

“Thank you, Marc.”

He stumbled for a moment, then returned it tightly.

“Anything for you, Marinette.”

Lila leaned against the railing on the second story of the school, thinking over the previous day, furious, as she watched people wandering around on ground level.

The art room was no longer worth pursuing.

It had just turned into another batch of people she had to find a way to either ruin, or win back.

She glared at Marc as she watched him and Nathaniel pass below her. After they’d gone she spun on her heel and started off towards the locker room.

There was now one more person on the list of people who weren’t as dumb as the others, who had chosen to go against her.


End file.
